A Year in Sweden: Crazy in Copenhagen

I am now starting to feel more adjusted to Scandinavia. I spent all of yesterday and much of today exploring Copenhagen, seeing the touristy sites, etc. The city is truly beautiful, and is a marvel both by day and by night. At night, Copenhagen is a party city with many pubs, bars, and clubs to go to. The city is beautifully lit up at night, and there is a strange mix of old architecture with modern neon lights. The Danes like to party late into the night. Many of them stay up partying and see the sun rise. During the day, there are many museums to see, streets to walk, and countless cafes to sit down at and watch the world pass by while drinking a coffee and having a fine Danish pastry. I started out my morning yesterday in just that sort of way. From my hotel, I headed towards Christianshavn and a café caught my eye. The barista was friendly and willing to answer my questions regarding the area. I had a light European breakfast, and then continued my exploration of the city by walking down the canals. These are a sight pleasing to the eye, and I envisioned myself one day owning a boat in Copenhagen, such as the many that were docked there. I found a great view of Nyhavn just across the inlet from Christianshavn. From there, I walked towards a spiraling church tower. For 25 Kroner, I was able to go to the top of the tower and get a spectacular panoramic view of Copenhagen. After setting foot back on the street, I went to Christiania, a partially self-governing neighborhood inside of Copenhagen. One is not allowed to take pictures inside Christiania, but it is a very free –spirited area, with many artsy and “hippie” types of people. It reminded me of Berkeley in a way. Next I went to the Black Diamond, which is the Danish Royal Library. It is an impressive modern structure amidst the historical buildings beside it. Just behind the library is an equally impressive garden. Then just beyond that lies a square which gave excellent opportunities to take pictures of some of the classical building, of which one of my favorites was the Old Stock Exchange, with a dragon spire on the roof. From there, it is a short walk to the inner city, which is buzzing with people. The inner city is intersected by Stroget, a pedestrian street lined with shops that stretched for quite a while. I walked towards Tivoli, an amusement park which Denmark is well known for, and explored the Central Station, where I will be leaving this great city tomorrow morning. I headed north and saw the Tycho Brahe Planetarium. Continuing north, I explored a park, and then the Botanical Gardens. These perfectly masked the feeling of being in an urban environment, but Copenhagen has not been a sore for my eye thus far, but it was nice to have a change of scenery. It was a short walk to Rosenborg Castle from the gardens. This place was very ornate, and there was even a wedding reception taking place in the park where the castle lies. Walking east, I ran into Amalienborg Palace and Frederik’s Church. A little further east was the Opera House, which could be seen across the water.

I had to start getting back to my hotel, because earlier in the day I had met a Colombian tourist named Louis. He had invited me to go pub crawling with him and some Spanish girls he met on his flight. I rushed back to my hotel, and then headed towards the Danhostel, where he was trying to get a room. On my way there, I took note of a rap concert going on in the city square by City Hall. There were a lot of people in my age group so I considered going back there once I found Louis and the girls, and it was close to many pubs. Louis had not gotten a room by the time I arrived, so I decided to order a pizza and drink some beer while I waited for him to get one and we waited for the Spanish girls to arrive. While I was having my meal, I talked with some girls from England and New Zealand. I ended up talking to the New Zealand girl for about an hour, until she had to leave to meet her friends. Louis had not returned yet, so I decided to try and find some night life by myself. After walking down many streets and asking some locals if they knew of any good places, I heard some noise and followed my instinct. It brought me to a group of people about my age, all partying in the middle of a street. After talking to a Swedish girl, I found that it was a pre-party for a rave that was going on that night. Great, that is just the sort of thing that I was looking for! So I followed the crowd to a square by the Old Stock Exchange where we waited for a bus to pick us up and take us to the rave. I talked with some Swedes and Danes, and we even got into politics at one point. It is frustrating not being able to understand what people are saying around you, but luckily Scandinavians speak fluent English, at least the younger generations. After a while, the bus arrived and took us to the rave. The bus driving started pumping up the crowd by getting them to sing Danish drinking songs. When we got to the rave there was a long line, but the time passed by pretty quickly by talking to some people. I discovered that the place was huge when I got inside. There were two different stories and 4 different areas playing different typed of music with different DJs. Each place had its own bar. The loud music made it even harder to understand to locals, but I just tried to blend in a little. Being alone was the worst part, because there were some awkward times when I had no one to talk to or dance with, but with such a big crowd, it was easy to change scenes and explore different opportunities. I think I started to head home around 4 am, but the rave was still very much happening when I left. It took me about an hour and a half to walk back to my hotel, but the scenery of the city at night was well worth it. I feel like I really lived my life that day, which immense historical, cultural, and social experiences. It was the perfect night and day to kick off my adventure in Europe, and I feel very lucky that everything worked out as it did.

The next morning, I decided to see the last of the important tourist sites. The best known of these is the Little Mermaid statue. I headed north and checked out this statue, the nearby fortress, and a small gothic styled church or cathedral. The mermaid statue had many people around trying to take pictures. I decided to get a picture of the statue instead of myself with the statue, because of the crowd and the delay it would have caused. After seeing what is commonly regarded as the most important landmark in Copenhagen, I decided to go back to my hotel and rest, because my feet were aching from all the walking I had done even the day before. After resting a little, I went out for a light dinner at a café along Stroget. The coffee here is great, but I had some strange goat cheese and banana sandwich that I am not quite used to. I guess it will take me awhile to adjust to European food. Still, I would love to try a more authentic Danish pastry some time. I was unable to get one today because it is Sunday and many of the bakeries are closed. I will probably return some time to get myself one if I do not manage to do so tomorrow.

The plan for tomorrow is to leave for Lund by around noon so I can register for my program and get settled in to my apartment. I am looking forward to exploring Lund in the future and getting used to what will be my new home for the next 4 to 5 months. I can say for sure that it is great to be in Scandinavia.